The structure of Imperialism
Mercantilism is an economic system where raw materials are removed cheaply from a colony, brought to the mother country and converted into high quality finished goods. The system ensures that only the mother country really does well out of the exchange while the colony stagnates.
| One of the best examples of mercantilism is Haiti. Haiti was a colony under the French Empire. The French made a lot of money through the sale of sugar, which was produced on Haiti. The trade was so prosperous that Haiti was the greatest wealth producing colony of the New World. However, in order to maximize profit, the French developed the colony only as much as was needed. As a result, when Haiti won its independance, the new country had no roads, industries or infrastructure to forge an independant economy. Race also played a part in the poor development of Haiti. None of the European empires wished to work with the former slaves who now controled the western end of the island. Today Haiti is one of the poorest country in the world.
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Same Old Team...Mercantilism is still alive and well. Countries no longer carve up land and organize them into colonies as they used to. Today large companies, who do not care about human or environmental rights, make lots of money taking advantage of weak countries. Most of these companies have the quiet blessings of the advanced western countries where their main offices are located.
| The New ImperialismCompanies such as Barrick Gold make huge profits setting up mines in latin American countries. Using local militia the company moves farmers off their land and begins to set up its facilities. Farmers complain that the mining efforts contaminate the land making the crops they grow poisonous . They are ignored. Furthermore, Barrick does not refine the gold it extracts from the lands in the country where it was mined. That would force it to pay tax to the government. Instead it moves the gold still mixed with earth to a location ouside the country of origin, calling the mixture mine run-off. This allows the company to maximize its profits and not to pay the rightful country its due.
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